Longer school day? Do opposite instead

After listening to Gov. Christie's "State on the State" address, many have balked at lengthening the school day of all New Jersey students. While this proposal may drastically alter statistics in districts with a high dropout rate and low graduation rates for the better, is it fair to students that are presently excelling?

With current school hours, many students are already arriving home quite late because they are involved in extracurricular activities; while others have increased stress levels due to the minimal amount time that is allotted for them to complete their homework. Even while ignoring all the problems students will face, how can one be sure that with this sacrifice of time, positive results will even be achieved? With all these considerations, it would be absurd to move forward with any school reform.

Student competitiveness rises each year as colleges demand more, and society's perception of a higher education changes. Because of this, student stress-levels are at an all-time high. Colleges demand students who are "well-rounded" individuals. Today, it is difficult to stand out by being "just" a student.

It is not uncommon to see more than one varsity sport and a multitude of required community service hours along with outstanding grades on a high-schooler's resume. This forces kids to be out of the house for very long hours practicing and playing their sports or doing community service, sometimes unable to eat dinner before starting to study. Many students will then be studying and completing homework until the late hours of night or even early into the morning. In some high-achieving high schools, it would be easy to find a student who has "pulled an all-nighter" on numerous occasions.

Although Christie's plan of action is ill-advised, if it is implemented, how can we be sure that it will help a student actually achieve more? Psychology studies have shown numerous times a person can only hold a limited amount of information in our short-term memory until it gets encoded into memory we can retrieve later. In short, we can only memorize so much in a day. The amount of time students put into school is enough already; with more time in each class, will students know more? By the time "Christie's extended school days" are done, it would only make sense that kids would be inattentive and lethargic to keep working.

This remodeling should not be implemented throughout the entire state. When looking at just this one aspect of the governor's plan, it is very evident that this is a careless approach with no research into educational issues. If you want to be sure that schools would benefit from this plan, watch a classroom firsthand. You may then be surprised to find that students of all ages need the exact opposite. Help them to be excited when learning and don't keep them trapped in a boring classroom all the time.

Jake Stolzenberg

EAST BRUNSWICK

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Longer school day? Do opposite instead

After listening to Gov. Christie's 'State on the State' address, many have balked at lengthening the school day of all New Jersey students.

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